Creative and Practical Ways To Use LEGO Around the House (Without Stepping On Any!)

or the last several decades, LEGO has been a standard toy staple found in pretty much every home that has kids (or nostalgic adults) in it. They were first created by a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934; since then, over 400 billion of the familiar plastic bricks have been made.

Aaaand I'm pretty sure most of them are in my carpet, judging by how often I step on one.

Rather than risk unleashing the stream of obscenities (and intense pain in the arch of your foot) caused by errant LEGOs lying around, put the loose blocks to good use with one of these cool, practical projects! Hey, I bet your kids would even help; they love doing anything that involves building with their favorite bitty bricks (as long as they don't have to put them away, because we all know that ain't happening).

All it takes are some plain magnets and a hot glue gun to turn the toys into fridge magnets.

If you’re not a fan of decorating in primary colors, just spray paint the blocks first. You could also turn minifigures or small LEGO creations, like little planes or lady bugs, into magnets the same way.

This ring project is such a great way to use up all those little LEGO bits — and get them out of the house, too, as the tutorial says they used these as Valentine’s Day classroom gifts! They’d also be fun party favors.

You’ll need some inexpensive ring blanks, and after that the sky’s the limit!